A Sermon Delivered by
The Rev. John D. Painter
at Centenary United Methodist Church
Metuchen, New Jersey, May 23. 2010
(The Day of Pentecost – Confirmation)

Text: Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other lan-guages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speak-ing Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phry-gia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” —Acts 2:1-21, NRSV

I confess: I have been a poor record-keeper. I really don’t know how many Confirmation classes I have received into membership in the six churches I have served as pastor over 43 years of ordained ministry. I do know that you are the fifth class to be received during my ten years at Centenary. And with the eight of you, I have been privileged to share in the Confirmation expe-rience with and receive into membership at Centenary 39 Confirmands since June 2001.

I am making a rough guess that I have worked with over 30 Confirmation classes during the years, and perhaps received into membership close to 200 young persons. I don’t know what has happened to all of them. I have remained close to a few. And one of those from my years in Teaneck actually wound up answering the call of God to ordained ministry and serves as an As-sistant General Secretary for Education and Leadership Development with our United Methodist Board of Church & Society in Washington, DC. It is always a joy to see Neal when he visits home and our Annual Conference…which I hope he will do in a couple of weeks.

So I have preached—or shared in preaching—on these occasions somewhere around 30 times. I’ve told stories. I have dispensed advice and (I hope) a little wisdom. I have told a joke or two. I have laid down a challenge or two. I have even sung on at least three occasions…once about “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” who went up the waterspout. That was here at Centenary back in June 2001…but I’ll spare you a repeat performance.

Nonetheless, when it comes right down to it, it is always a little challenging to know just what to say to you and to this congregation on an occasion such as this. Maybe that’s because there is so much that could be said. It is Pentecost, after all, and after 2 millennia, the Church of Jesus Christ certainly has a lot of stories to tell; a lot of joys to celebrate; a lot of blunders to con-fess; a lot of promises to keep; and, a lot of visions to fulfill. Then, maybe the difficulty in know-ing what to say is not because there is so much that could be said, as it is in finding just the right thing to say on this particular occasion. That, I believe, has been my challenge in the past few weeks and days.

As I have reminded the Confirmands throughout our journey over the past 8 months, our Baptism is the sign and seal of our call to ministry by God…whether that baptism occurred over a decade ago when you were just a little child, or will occur today. It is foundational to all that God gives to us and seeks from us as faithful disciples. And what we will do here today in this Service of Confirmation is to offer you the opportunity to affirm and claim that Baptismal Cove-nant as your own. In effect, you will be invited today to Claim Your Name!

The Confirmation curriculum that we have been using is called Claim the Name…and, of course, the Name that it seeks to have us claim is the name of Jesus Christ. To claim him, as your vows will affirm: “…as your Savior, [to] put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations and races.” But I want to contend this morning that when you claim the name of Jesus, you are also claiming your own name. It works something like this…

Back in the early years of my ministry, our baptismal liturgy had a piece in it which our newer liturgy has dropped. (That is clear evidence that new is not always better…at least in this pastor’s humble opinion.) Just before I was to apply the water to the head of the child who had been brought to the font for Baptism, I turned to the parents and asked, “What name is given to this child?” And upon receiving that child’s “Christian” name, I proceeded to baptize her or him using that name. It really was a mixture of traditions…the wonderful mystery of the Sacrament of Christian Baptism incorporating an ancient naming ritual. In a sense, it reminded us that this child now had a unique identity before God and the family of faith. I know traditions where that question is still asked…and I have even done it here on certain occasions when the Spirit moved me to do so.

Now flash forward a dozen years or so from that Baptismal/Christening/Naming moment at the font, and this young woman or man comes before the congregation to be Confirmed for-mally into the Christian faith. (By the way, I saw a picture this week of the 2010 Confirmation Class at Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church in Maplewood, where I was Senior Pastor for seven years before coming to Centenary. I baptized a few of the youth in that class when they were infants. Talk about additional gray hairs!) Anyway, Confirmation is now that young per-son’s opportunity to claim his or her name in Christ. The name with which they were bap-tized…the unique identity that they have borne before God and the family of faith during the years of Christian nurture and formation…is now the name with which they will accept for them-selves the blessings of full membership and ministry within the Church.

And, in so doing, they are also claiming the name of the Christ who has been with them throughout the beginning years of this journey…and who will continue to walk with them on the next steps that carry them forward into the rest of their lives. As we will sing in a few minutes:

“I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old.
“I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.”

As you prepare to claim your name, I hope you will take with you from our brief time to-gether a maturing awareness of the overwhelming love and presence of God in your lives. You have seen it clearly in those wonderful folk who walked with each of you over the past eight months as your Mentors; you have received it frequently from Mr. Mike and Pastor Keith during your class sessions together. And I hope that you might even have caught a glimpse of it from time to time in my ministry with you.

God’s love and presence with us is a mystery of grace, something most of us have yet to even come close to fully understanding. But the evidence is clear, God loves us in ways we can-not imagine. When the way is good, but also when it turns rough, God is there. From the begin-ning to the end, God is there. From birth to death…and beyond death, God is there. May your ever-opening eyes in the years ahead reveal that simple but profound reality. God is with you! Always! No matter what and no matter where.

Cameron, Carla, Becky, Emily, Laura, Brittany, Zachary & John: Though you have been an important part of the “family” of Christ for a long time, this morning we welcome you offi-cially as you confirm your faith and take your place among us—a place reserved for you since the day you first took breath. I pray through the water of your Baptism, and the nurturing the church has provided you over these years—and especially in these past eight months—you will be equipped with a fullness of faith, hope and love: necessary supplies for the next crucial steps in your journey. For all that has been in our journey together, and for all that is yet to be on the road ahead, we give thanks and praise to God.

And let the people of God say, Amen and Amen.
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